A Dutch piece in the VPRO gids (real ink printed on real paper!) about our movie Chejv mej nü j angst (which was featured on VPROtv), the We are Citizens project in general, and our cooperation with Roma in Slovakia and the Netherlands. (2014, week 7, p. 30-31)

Originally this music is the soundtrack for circustheatre play ‘Huis op Hol’ (previously known as ‘Out of Control’) by Wietske Vogels about a peculiar female inventor who builds overly complicated contraptions to make her everyday routines into something gracefully awesome.

This release is available as a pay-what-you-want download, but also as an exceptional limited edition. Here it comes… a wooden usb-stick, encased in a bar of soap, home-made by Weerthof! No more vinyl or CD’s clogging up your house if you don’t want to! Only 50 numbered copies of these are made, straight from the Weerthof cooking laboratory.

(Some reactions to the smell of the Out of Control soap: “This smell reminds me of the boat of my grand-parents”, “It smells a bit electrical”, “Somewhere between an scullery and a workshop”, “Like drinking mint tea on Texel”.)

Weerthof is a musician, artist and producer of soundtracks and catchy pop songs hailing from Den Bosch. This is his fifth release, and his first instrumental one in almost 10 years. He seems to have returned a bit to his roots of fusing classical music with IDM, modifying trivial sounds and building objects to create those specific sound combinations. Yet bringing along the exploration of pop and early music from his 2012 album ‘Hoi’, resulting in a light, somewhat eclectic yet distinctly Weerthovian flavour.

To be honest: I don’t care that much about vinyl or cd’s. Plaques of matter, clogging up space in our houses. Neither for so called ‘limited edition physical releases’, for that matter. What I do care about is music. A lot. I love making it, and love listening to it. But I also love musicians and producers who go the extra mile to make their releases something special. Something tangible, to put the icing on the cake of the sweat and love they poured into it. Doesn’t sound contradictory at all, does it?

On October 2nd my new release will come out on esc.rec: The Out of Control EP. And I’d like to make a ‘limited edition physical release’ which can both be a tangible thing filled with love, and something that doesn’t clog up your house if you don’t want to. So, Out of Control will not only be available as a pay-what-you-want download, but also (here it comes) ..

… as a wooden usb-stick, encased in a bar of soap – home-made by me. To make it even worse: I’d like to make the soap smell as how the music sounds. I’m now teaching myself the fine craft of soap making, making prototypes and delving in the fickle universe of smell. Will I get it right? I don’t know. Is it fun to do? Hell yeah!

On this blog I will keep you posted on the soap making process and adventures.

PS 1 // If you are still wondering: why soap, man? Come to De Krakeling on October 2nd, and you’ll understand. And off course because experimenting with weird materials, chemicals, smells and fragrances is damn awesome!

PS 2 // Already itching to get your hands on one of these soapy babies? Send me a message, and I’ll reserve one especially for you.

I’m using glycerin, because the fat and lye otherwise needed isn’t very appreciated by usb-sticks in general.

Glycerin doesn’t harden when using water or oil based extractions. It needs to be done with concentrates. But to get the smell right without the risk of giving everyone an immense rash still needs some olfactory experimentation.

// Imagine: Silent Disco, but now yóur own (dance-)movements are controlling the music. Inter- and counteractions have a huge impact on the song dymanics and overall sounds. Now imagine 400 people working with and against each other to create a grand interactive composition..

// These last few months I was part of the team developing and producing this concept as sound designer and co-developer. Play!ground is an adaptable concept developed by Het Makershuis. Suitable for all sorts of visual or audiovisual applications using video mapping and track & trace technology. Festivals, organisations, educational purposes, you name it.

// This January was the big event: ATO Space Mission, a massive manifestation for 400 teachers. Focussing on the 21th Century Skills we offered a ‘space’ exploration encouraging experience, which – for the participants – turned out to be entertaining, perplexing, engaging and somewhat provocative.